looking for old paper at a flea market in the south of france

i am here piddling. the day is a soft gray. trees are shimmering blues & greens in the garden. moss is growing everywhere. the colors are popping in the gray light. we are gradually drying out from the wild river of rain that plowed into los angeles on friday. everything around these parts is looking good – no sink holes, mud slides, or fallen trees.

i took these book pictures with the specific intention to paint them with watercolors. which…

i’m going to do as soon as i finish clacking out this post.

chuy, my cat sitter, cleaning woman, friend, and all around dear person, decided to corral my animal menagerie onto a doily. i laughed hard & loud when i saw them after she’d left.

i’m going to say my remote control candles are one of the best things i bought in 2016. i can’t live without them. they make regular living room feel like storybook living room. in case you needed to know that.

here’s the watercolor i painted into my sketchbook of barbara’s house (showing moss cottage in the background). i’m going to do it again. maybe will sketch with a pencil first this time. or not. we’ll see!

wyatt recovered really well from his early january surgery! he goes back in a few weeks to have a bit of reconstructive surgery so that his left eye isn’t pulled up so high. the whole process was a 2-part surgery.

he says hello.

hope you’re enjoying this sunday on your sailboat or looking for old paper at a flea market in the south of france or scooting down country lanes on your vespa. making bread. picking grapes. or whatever it is you do on sundays.

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They make remote control candles?? You always keep a sista in the know…how have I missed remote control candles. Dang.
I spent Sunday staring at two bags of ephemera from old trips, thinking “Do something with it, or bin it (as they say in the UK, for one’s ‘rubbish bin’ which sounds more jaunty than ‘trash can’). So I did something with it, which was collaged with it until I was giddy with delight. Dang! (again)
Why do I always forget how totally satisfying sticking things to things is? It was awfully satisfying, and I’m very happy – it was like meeting an old friend. Glad to read the dear catboy is happy too!

Hello Wyat, i’m glad to read you are staying well. Hello MaryAnn, i’m also glad you (and Moss Cottage) stay well after the terrible weather. I liked reading your post like i always do! Have a good day!

Loved seeing all your yummie journals in this post! And glad to hear that Mr W is well on the mend. Since you ask …. I spent the weekend researching … Umbria!!!! I know you’ve been there, I saw your pictures at the time. Although I think you went quite early in May. We’re going a bit later as I need warmth! We’re basing ourselves just outside of Assisi and are going to explore the surrounding countryside, do walks, drink wine and I shall absolutely think of you when we “do” Spoleto. I will imagine you walking down the narrow streets and keeping a look out for italian speaking cats!

I’m not sure what’s going on over there at the Moss Cottage, perhaps mixology has replaced sketchbookery? LOL. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed seeing those 7 emails from posts of the past hit my inbox tonight! It felt like xmas! hahaha!

Dearest MAM. So glad to know that you and Moss cottage survived the deluge and escaped mudslides and flooding. Down here, we were lucky, rain but no disasters. My next door neighbor’s tree is still standing, thank the goddess. The tree is 120 feet tall and sways with a drunken ballerina’s grace during high winds. Should it ever lose consciousness it may well become part of my roof. I have been organizing my shittola. I have tons. I found a knitting project one third done that I had no memory of. Luckily I had the directions stashed with the yarn so I can pick up where I left off. Except that was 50 pounds ago. Hmmmm. Maybe I will alter the pattern a bit and make two arm sleeves instead of a vest like thing. Have you ever watched the web series by the actress who starred in the first Indiana jones movie. I am blanking on her name but she had black hair. Anyway check out her web series way too funny. I think her last name begins with a B. Or maybe not. TTFN.

donkey breying laughter spilling out of moss cottage when i imagine your knitting project!
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
my neighbor’s ancient oak lost one of its trunks in the storm before last. bad for them with lots of cleanup, but it didn’t land on their roof and i got 3 gorgeous stumps to put plants atop. and wyatt uses one of them for a chair.

Before I forget to comment, I, too, have totally fallen in love with my remote controlled candles. Well, mine aren’t remote controlled, but they are all on timers, so they come in in the dark and make the house looks wonderful—romantic, exotic, somewhere else-ish. I have two in the living rom, four in an Indian truck replica in the dining room, as the “load,” three tiny ones on the window sill in the kitchen, tucked in amongst the plants and one on the shelf by my claw foot tub in the bath. They flicker and glow and they make me oh-so-happy.

I made cookies. Oatmeal chocolate pecan with a sprinkle of flaked sea salt on top. Not bad, she said, not bad at all. Almost excellent with a cup of tea. And I just mixed up a bowl of quick pickled red onions to spice up my dinner salad. A dinner salad is all I get for my evening meal. (See cookies above….) And now I am going back to prepping some little fabric journals with inserts to hold various types of paper. They are purse sized, not pocket sized, and a take off of the ones that Rae Missigman taught in her online class Artadori. I am having way too much fun making these. I have some otherwise unspoken for time this week so I am working on getting some of these made in various stages so I can use them for gifts for my more arty friends throughout the year. Pull out a partially finished one and customize it with paint and paper for that special gift. It’s easy and economical and most of all, it’s FUN.

I am also amassing piles of things to pack as I am headed to a cruise around Australia in about ten days. Circumnavigating Australia! Doesn’t that sound just the bomb? I am so excited! I haven’t figured out yet exactly where in the PNW you are headed, but I’ve narrowed the area down and have a couple of pretty good guesses, I think! You will have a great time in my neck of the woods. Be sure to check out Emily Carr’s paintings and books before you go. To properly understand Northwest trees one must study Emily, I believe….

I had been wondering how you made out in the nasty storm. Some of the videos out of there were incredible. I am still concerned for those in the Oroville area.

I LOVE your values painting of Barbara’s house/ mom with Moss cottage in the back. That turned out nicely! Glad Wyatt is recovering and hoping he will be done with surgeries once his eye is fixed.

I was on cat patrol today, since both daughters are out of town. Oldest daughter and family are in AZ, so I go over to play with ther little orange kitten once a day, so he doesn’t get too lonely. Other daughter is at The Dunes, in Oregon all-terraining…or something, so went to check on her two cats, which were not happy to see me. They both hissed at me. Then I got the key stuck in the door and it took me half an hour to get it out. Then came home to take care of my own cat and dog. Like a zoo around here.

Nothing romantical going on here. I did go to a Goodwill store, and bought two books. One was “The Historian”, which I have been curious about. It was only a buck. Friday went to a local antique store (The Queen’s Ransom) looking for interesting papers. I found some! One thing I found was a little booklet with watercolor like papers in it to use painting film and or slides. Not sure how that worked, but I am going to try it on paper. Apparently, you rip off a little piece of the colored paper and soak it in water until the paper dissolves, and wallah! You have colored water to paint with. It is very old! Hope it’s not toxic.

Unpleasantry coming up…I have to get a diagnostic breast exam bc I have been having a little pain in one breast. I also have to go to the cardiologist, bc of family history. My mother had a heart attack much younger than I am, so I figured I had better get checked. Been having some odd symptoms. Not looking forward to the next couple weeks. Not gonna lie…I am a little scared. As women, I am sure we all get a little scared waiting for results. Three of my best friends have already had run-ins with breast cancer. All are alive to tell about it, thankfully!

I hope you, and the rest of the ladies here, have a wonderful and creative week!

Love those candles. I have a few too. No more worries about falling asleep and forgetting to blow out candles. Great watercolor of Barbara’s mom. Hmm a nap but paper shopping in France sounds much more fun. Let’s all go!

I love all your watercolors!
I enjoyed a lovely, almost summer like day here in February in central Pennsylvania. My antique shop was open and lots of folks were enjoying the day out and about. I personally would rather have been searching for vintage paper in the south of France.

Yep, an antique shop…. Lavender And Old Lace I have a small website that I never do anything with but it shows what is there…. http://www.lavenderandoldlace.com It is what I do when not doing quilting or art projects.

seeing the title of your post coming in by mail I wondered: hey MAM in the South of France….suddenly…. where is she….how coul I have missed her…..but you got me…I laughed out loud reading the end of your post!!! I didn’t do much more than going for a stroll in this lovely spring like weather, to the nearby paddock where my horses are, feeding them a lot of goodies, and walking back home to do more painting. riding is for another day.